Alice After All
by wanderer24
Summary: Alison is most definitely NOT Alice, thank YOU very much. Maybe, just maybe, she doesn't have to be. Can she save her new friends, or even herself, from the wrath of the formidable Queen of Hearts? Full summary inside. Plz to review?
1. Chapter 1: It's a Long Way to Fall

**AN: Hey guys…. First story, no flames plz, but constructive critisicm is much appreciated. I promised a full summary, so here ya go:**

**The bloody, decapitation- loving Queen of Hearts rules Wonderland with terror, and the Alliance of Alice has finally readied for their rebellion. All they need now is Queen Alice (having become a Queen during her second visit) to return to Wonderland to lead them and take her place as rightful ruler. There's just one problem: it's currently 2010 in the Other-land, so the original Alice is nowhere to be found. Instead, the rabbit finds a strong- willed girl named Alison who bears a remarkable resemblance to the Alice in question. Some believe she will save them; others, that everything has gone horribly wrong. Soon, Alice or not, Alison is caught up in the madness and must find out if her "Alice-ness" is enough to save her new friends, or even herself, from the wrath of the Queen.**

**Welcome back to Wonderland. Keep in mind that nothing is as it seems.**

**This story is my own personal interperitation of Lewis Carrol's characters. Meaning, I have gone and messed them up for my own enjoyment. The story is set assuming the first original book is (mostly) accurate, and that "Through the Looking Glass" happened when Alice was 19 or so, and had a slightly different ending, which will be explained in good time. This story is inspired by the new, absolutely fantastic, Burton's Alice in Wonderland, so if a few parts seem familiar, my subconscious probably stole from that story a bit.**

**Reviewers get an imaginary cupcake.**

**And if you wanna skip the prologue, feel free, it's unimportant and I don't like it much.**

-Prologue-

Alison hated dreams. Maybe "hate" is a strong word, but it was the word she herself used when discussing the matter. The general population likes dreams, at least most of the time. They are considered to be a kind of magical thing, often prophetic in stories.

Alison hated them, rather irrationally.

Everyone knows, from personal experience, how odd dreams can be. They can reflect us in ways we would rather not see ourselves, our hopes and fears, wishes and wants. This wasn't what bothered Allison.

It was the pure _randomness_.

The irrationality of dreams had always irked her. She disliked things that could not be categorized, explained, and reasoned. Dreams, especially the one she had just experienced, defied all of these.

She had been standing in a clearing; the sky was, of all colors, an odd shade of dark purple. Dead, bent trees, with a sort of burnt appearance, grew all around, and tall; she was surrounded on all sides. The perspective seemed quite off on everything, or maybe like she was swaying and couldn't keep her balance. Out of nowhere, a teacup had smashed at her feet, alarming her. She found to her dismay that she could neither speak nor move. An enormous bird, at least as tall as herself- a raven? - had landed and started speaking utter gibberish, although the tone sounded as if whatever it had to say was urgent. Animals that talked were another completely irrational thing that existed only in dreams, and that defied all of Alison's beloved logic. Animals did _not_ talk, in Narnia movies, sure, but in real life, no.

After the bird flew away, many things happened at once; people appeared and began to walk upside- down, even though technically there was no ceiling, so they should have been falling, and a rabbit had fallen from the sky and landed at Allison's feet. The rabbit seemed unharmed; as he began laughing crazily and rolling about like a madman. Thunder rumbled, and the sky began to rain keys, which one might expect to hurt, falling from the sky, but this being a dream, Allison found that she barely felt them bounce off her skin. Quick as a wink, another rabbit passed by at full speed, muttering something that sounded like "I'm so very late!" but Alison, being logical even in dreams, decided she must have been imagining things, because animals certainly do not talk. (The scene seemed somehow familiar, but she couldn't place it.) She also now found her ability to move again, and started running after the rabbit.

Upon waking, she would ask herself why, but to her frustration, there seemed to be no logical reasoning behind her decision. It simply seemed natural, at the moment anyway, that when a rabbit in a waistcoat dashes past one, one should follow it.

As the dream continued, she chased the rabbit past the burnt-looking trees through the frightening forest. As she ran, the rabbit seemed to just get further away, although she was continually running faster. Just as the rabbit disappeared from sight altogether, an enormous hole appeared and swallowed Alison, who fell, screaming, past clocks of all sorts until she jolted awake.

Stupid dreams.

-1-

It's a Long Way to Fall

Alison wondered how many times she had sat by this tree. Probably thousands. At least a few hundred. Let's see, if she sat here every day for 3 years, that would be over 1,000. A thousand. Alison liked numbers. They were relatively easy to control, always made perfect sense, and always had one, final, definite answer. Always. And even if she didn't quite understand them, she always knew that there was still logic there, giving her the answer, which comforted her.

Needless to say, math was her best subject. Literature, however…

She looked down at her folder and made a face at it. Her final report on _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland _was due Monday, and she hadn't even started. It was such a waste of time, the whole book. A lot of nonsense gibberish written by a pedophile on drugs. It meant absolutely nothing, but the annoying thing was, it couldn't _stay_ nothing. Oh, no. According to her teacher, when one looked below the surface, there were a whole slew of meanings, from political statements to references to Victorian culture to those ridiculous riddles with either none or multiple answers, which irritated Allison. Who cared why a raven was like a writing desk anyway?

As she thought about her growing dislike for the book, she noticed something small and white dash by. She hardly spared a thought for whatever it was. She was sitting in a small park in New York City, and figured she was bound to see strange things. It dashed by again, however, and she put down her paper and looked for it. How odd. There was nothing there. She must be seeing things.

The thing in question huffed with impatience. She'd been more observant last time, hadn't she? Or at least more curious.

The third time he passed, she looked up in time to get a full glimpse of him. Holy shit, that book was messing with her head. It was a rabbit in a freaking coat. Alison took a deep breath, closed her eyes and put her head between her knees. It was just her tired mind, for some reason creating rabbit-shaped hallucinations. Just give it a minute, and it will go away. She glanced out again, this time almost having a heart attack. He was standing in front of her impatiently, tapping his foot in obvious annoyance.

"You're late." He said, in a very irritated British voice. His nose twitched in annoyance.

"Holy. _Shit_." She stared unbelievingly. It was an animal, in clothing, talking to her. And not just any rabbit, _The_ White Rabbit. The rabbit knew he was very, very late. An idea occurred to him. Quick as a wink, he snatched the first thing he saw and ran- this happened to be her cell phone.

It took a second for this to sink in. After sitting for several moments with her mouth hanging open, she came to her senses. "Hey! I need that!" She yelled, jumping up and running after it.

As she chased the rabbit out of the park, she realized why it felt familiar. This is what had happened in her dream, chasing the rabbit… just like in the book. This was just too ridiculous. She almost stopped and turned around.

But, real or not, that thing had taken her cell phone, and she would have had a difficult time explaining that one to her mother.

So she put of a burst of speed. It was Saturday, in the middle of New York City, in April. It was very crowded, needless to say. She bumped and dodged her way through a particularly thick group of people, wondering why no one else saw the rabbit. Maybe it really _was_ a figment of her imagination. Either way, when she caught up with it, she was going to want answers.

It led her deeper into the city, making such random twists and turns Alison felt certain it didn't know where it was going. Alison was very in- shape, but was definitely starting to feel a bit winded at this point. It rounded a sharp corner, which Alison then followed, only to stop suddenly. It didn't lead anywhere. It was a dead end, the wall of the alley staring from about 20 feet back, but the rabbit was nowhere to be seen. Alison began to reprimand herself; the rabbit was obviously a figment of her own imagination, after reading that stupid book for too long! Now she was lost, alone, and completely without a cell phone. Stupid rabbit! It was then she noticed a small object lying on the ground, next to the wall. Her cell phone? She ran towards it, hoping it would be, when all of a sudden; the ground disappeared beneath her and the last thing she saw was a sewer hole swallowing her as she tumbled into darkness.

The odd thing was, she _kept_ falling. When one falls, it's usually only for a moment, maybe a few if it's a very long fall. But she fell. And fell. And fell. At first, she'd considered screaming, but little good that would do her. She wasn't really the screaming type. Or the falling type, really, but it was rather unavoidable at times like this. Alison noted that, oddly, it didn't seem to be getting darker as she fell, but rather lighter. She soon enough saw why. Objects began to appear, including lit lamps, which provided enough light to see by.

She discovered that a number of objects were falling alongside her, which was bizarre, because nothing had fallen down the hole with her at the top. All were also falling at various speeds, which also bothered her, because according to all the logical physics she had ever learned, things always fall at the same speed despite having different weights.

Then it occurred to her that whenever this tunnel ended, the fall would most likely kill her.

_Oof_.

She hadn't even noticed the ground coming towards her until it rushed up, full force, and knocked the wind out of her. At least she wasn't dead, although that too made little sense.

Logically, if she had landed, then there must be something down here. Where was the rabbit?

And where the hell _was_ she?

**AN: Whee. At least it's out of the way. I don't like this chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2: Doors and Tea Parties

**AN: I like this chapter a LOT better. Just saying, it's my fav I've written for this story so far. I have absolutely no idea how long chapters are supposed to be, so if mine are terribly long or short, plz let me know.**

**Reviews will make me futterwacken.**

**Also let me know if something isn't explained or is confusing, I am aware the plot may have holes in it.**

-2-

Doors and Tea Parties

Alison took a mental inventory of herself. No immediate pain. She wiggled each of her appendages independently, no injuries there, just an overall soreness. She slowly eased herself to her feet, then almost fell over, her head throbbing. She gently felt her head and winced as she noticed what was going to be an enormous welt in several minutes. Great, she probably had a concussion. Using the wall for support, she eased herself up and looked around.

"What the…?" She had landed at the end of an enormous hallway, lined with scores of doors, with a checkerboard floor and what once may have been white walls. Everything looked decayed and yellowed; the floor was dirty and chipped. How far underground was she? Who would build such a ridiculous room miles and miles underground?

She carefully made her way to the nearest door, and twisted the chipped crystal knob. It rattled uselessly, locked. As were the next four doors she tried. She slumped down, her injury making her head throb achingly. There was an ominous creaking noise, and she turned to see that the door at the very end of the hall had creaked open a tiny crack. That hadn't been like that a moment ago, had it? As she straightened up, she noticed the perspective of the walls and doors looked odd, like things didn't all follow the same lines, even though up close, it looked normal. She frowned and made her way down the odd hallway to the door.

No way. Seriously? _Seriously_? She almost laughed out loud. She was having Alice in Wonderland hallucinations, of course. Follow the rabbit, Wonderland, yadda yadda. She must have hit her head pretty darn hard. The small, circular room was before her, complete with the glass table holding a vial of liquid and a tiny key. Very funny, hallucinations. She looked towards the red curtain, which had dulled to a deep crimson and now hung limply from its rod.

She approached the table. "DRINK ME" Read the label on the bottle, naturally. Yeah, right. As if. She picked up the tiny key and turned to the curtain. Pulling it aside, she looked down. Sure enough, she almost laughed; there was the tiny door, maybe 15 inches tall. She kneeled down carefully; her head still hurt; and opened the tiny door with the key. The room became lighter as sunlight streamed in the tiny doorframe. She bent down and peered through.

A beautiful garden stretched out as far as she could see through the door, lit by golden sunshine. Huge, overgrown flowers surrounded perfectly manicured green bushes shaped into elaborate sculptures of all sorts of things. Trees, larger than any Alison had seen in the city, towered over everything and bathed parts in shade. Birds of some kind flew overhead, tweeting soft melodies. Elaborate (Gravity- defying?) fountains burbled and flowed. It was so beautiful Alison forgot about her throbbing head.

In that moment, Alison forgot reason, and almost believed it was real.

Almost. She shook her head to clear it, and stepped back from the door.

"This is crazy. I can't possibly fit." She said, thinking of logical things and taking deep breaths. The bottle glinted from the table. She scowled at it. "I don't think so. I know exactly what _you'll_ do." Great, now she was talking to inanimate objects. Stupid rabbit. This was all _his_ fault. She looked around. No use trying the other doors; all locked, most likely. Although…

Alison reached up and pulled a bobby pin from her hair. She'd never actually picked a lock before, but it couldn't be too hard, right? She frowned. Now which door? She stood a moment in thought. They were all the same, did it really matter? But logically they all led different places; which one had the rabbit gone through? Or had he squeezed through the tiny door? And how was she supposed to figure this out? She stamped her foot in frustration.

"Temper, temper, my dear…" A voice whispered in Alison's ear.

"Who said that?" She whipped around and scanned the room, but saw no one. Crap, stupid hallucinations, now they had even learned to be creepy? She glanced over her shoulder. "Alright, voice, I'll play along," She said nervously. "Which door?" She hadn't really expected an answer, which is why she nearly jumped out of her skin when it again spoke.

"The door to your right looks lovely." It purred. Alison still saw no one. She shuddered; this voice was _way_ creepy. Deciding against her better instincts, she followed the hint and approached the door. Sticking the pin in the lock, she found that nothing happened. She wiggled it for a while, listening for a click. None came.

After attempting this for several minutes, she was becoming rather frustrated. She scowled at the door, kicking at it aimlessly. "Well, voice, any hints now?" She asked hopefully. It didn't speak, but Alison would have sworn she heard a faint chuckle. A thought occurred to her, looking around the room. Maybe the wooden doors were as decayed as the rest of this place. She grinned. "Sorry, voice, but for lack of better suggestions, we're doing this my way." She strode across the room to get a running start, and slammed foot-first into the door, kicking it. The rotted wood gave way with a sickening crunch, and her momentum carried her through the door, tumbling down.

Rubbing her now very-sore head, she realized that kicking down the door might not have been the best of ideas. She winced, but pulled herself up from the wreckage of the door, which had deposited her onto a hill. Tumbling down this had irritated the welt on her head, which throbbed again. Looking back at the door, she saw nothing but an empty doorframe, sad and weather-beaten. There was no sign of the room she had just exited, and Alison was, as usual, very bothered by the lack of logic behind this. She didn't dwell on it, however, seeing as this must be a dream, and therefore more or less dismissed everything anti-logical about it. Which was only, well, everything so far. Looking around, she appeared to be in some kind of forest, lush and green, although it was different than any forest she'd seen on earth. More whimsical, maybe. Everything was indescribably more fantastic. A rustle in the bush reminded her of something.

Now where was that rabbit?

The rabbit in question was in fact watching her from behind a tree. She'd obviously found the right door, naturally, with her being Alice and all. However, he rather hadn't been expecting her to come tumbling right through the door, kicking it to pieces. He was rather stunned, in fact. As she looked around, it occurred to him that he should be running at this point, and so he hopped out and away as fast as his furry little legs could carry him. He quickly checked his watch, to which he gave a small yelp, he was so very late!

Alison saw the flash of white zip by this time, and wasted to time in chasing it.

"Hey you, rabbit!" She called as she ran. He didn't respond. The rabbit was much shorter than Alison, and She found herself often ducking or pushing branches out of her face. "Wait up!" He didn't wait, not that she'd been expecting him to. She internally scolded herself for encouraging her hallucinations, but kept running anyway. He was fast though, and Alison soon found she lost sight of him. She stopped to catch her breath, breathing heavily, head still pounding. She leaned against a tree for support.

"Which day is it?" Asked a weary voice with a rather British accent. Alison jumped. What was that? She looked around, and noticed she was standing on the outskirts of a small clearing. Maybe 15 feet away, a most peculiar thing was happening. A tea party appeared to be underway, using several non-matching, half broken tea sets, various stained, worn tablecloths, and a variety of plates of crumpets and other such tea-foods, all set out over several tables. The tables looked to be of all different kinds and heights, which mismatching chairs to match, ironically. The tables were set for far more people than were residing at the party, none of whom looked thrilled. The man at the head of the table was inspecting a pocket watch, looking gloomy. His oversized hat and un-matching outfit were fairly ridiculous. There was also a scraggly brown rabbit in disheveled clothing who was sprawled across the table, giggling and twitching. Alison realized that it must have been the Hatter and the Hare. The Hatter wasn't at all like she had pictured him; in fact aside from his bizarre clothing and weirdly pale skin, he was almost normal-looking, with black hair that stuck up in odd places and desperately needed to be brushed. As she looked closer, though, she noticed he had an odd shade of lavender eyes, defined by tired grey circles underneath. He had the tired, beaten appearance of someone who is fairly young but is made to seem older from stress.

At the other end of the table, there were two fat boys bickering with each other over a crumpet, each with just one curl of hair sticking up and striped shirts, suspenders holding up their shorts. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, maybe? The other two attendees Alison didn't recognize. She ducked behind a tree to avoid being seen, but continued watching the curious tea party. There was a faint yawn.

"Isn't it the 17th?" Asked a shrill little voice whose owner Alison couldn't see, in response to the question that had just been asked. Maybe the dormouse? The man sitting at the head of the table, seemingly the asker of the question, sighed.

"Last week it was the 17th, so today it couldn't possibly be anything above the 10th." He said firmly. "You wouldn't know, I suppose, Hare?" The March Hare looked at him calmly.

"Why, today's t-tomorrow!" At this, he giggled, which escalated into a chuckle, into an outright guffaw. He pounded the table with his fist as he convulsed with laughter, making the table and the variety of objects on it rattle and shake.

"Contrariwise, tomorrow's today, in which case it wouldn't matter what day it is, seeing as it'll be all switched-like tomorrow, although since that would be today, it would all be the same, now wouldn't it?" Tweedle Dum asked, his fat bald brow furrowing. Tweedle Dee smacked him.

" 'Course not, everyone knows that "today" and "tomorrow" are never the same day!" He chided. Tweedle Dum scratched his fat head.

" 'Course contrariwise," Dum said in a confused way, "they would be, and then nobody would never know nothing about them being that they would be, in which case… wouldn't they be?" Dee was about to interrupt again when a teacup slammed with an exasperated clack onto its plate.

"Would you fellows please do us all the service of being silent? Really now, you're enough to try the patience of an oyster!" The speaker scolded. He was a large green fish in a rather fancy suit, with a bowler hat and monocle. And was that a moustache? Could fish even grow moustaches?

The fish spoke in an overly proper British manner, obviously very self- righteous. "At any rate, I don't believe that's what Mr. Hatter asked. I'm afraid I don't know the da-"

"D' you see that bird? Look, I think it's a Pald Eagle!" A young man cut in enthusiastically from the other end of the table. "I've only ever heard of those! Whadda 'ya think? Those markings look just like the one in th-" CLANG. In his excitement, he had fallen out of his seat and lay in a rather uncomfortable- looking position on the ground. The source of the noise appeared to the enormous amount of gleaming white armor he sported, which may have looked rather dashing on some people, but managed to look only awkward and cumbersome on this particular guy. He gripped the table in order to hoist himself up, knocking over and smashing a teacup. "Sorry!" He squeaked, scrambling to his knees. "Sorry, I-" CLANG. He had fallen over again, this time on his back. Alison winced. The whole scene was really rather pathetic. The March Hare laughed hysterically, and Alison felt even more sorry for the knight- guy, whose face was turning very red. He pulled himself back up into his seat.

"Two days slow. Isn't it always? The Hatter said morosely of the pocket watch, seeming to not even notice the calamity the knight had caused. He dipped it into his tea slowly. Alison rather doubted this would fix it. All of a sudden, the Hatter jumped up, dropping the watch with a splash, a maniac smile lighting his face. "I've just had the most marvelous idea for a hat!" He announced, as if it were literally the best news in the world. The rest of the tea party looked far less thrilled to hear it. "I simply must go create it." He turned towards the woods behind him. The fish rolled his eyes.

"Sit down, Hatter, you can't go anywhere yet. Twitch wanted to talk to us, recall?" The Hatter's grin faded. "At any rate, your house is in the opposite direction." This did nothing to improve the Hatter's now-sour mood as he dropped back into his chair. Alison had never seen such dramatic mood swings, even from the moodiest of her friends.

"It was not in the opposite direction. I should think I know where my own house is." The hatter said sulkily.

"Indeed you should, and do, but wrongfully so, as you clearly are unsure as to the location." The fish said impatiently.

"Yes, but you forgot," The Hatter said, brightening marginally, "It's an odd Thursday, so my house is on the other side of the Pool of Tears, meaning that I would be right." His house moves on Thursdays? If she didn't think she was dreaming, she would think these people very mentally unstable. Not to mention, it wasn't Thursday, it was Saturday. The fish muttered something unintelligible, and sulked about being wrong, which he hated, and changed the subject.

"Where is that blasted rabbit? He's late as usual." The fish said irritably. The Hatter sighed.

"Charles, you shouldn't have come so early if you knew he was going to be late." He pointed out rather sensibly.

"You were here the same time I was!" Charles retorted indignantly.

"Yes, but if my memory serves, I was dragged here rather against my will, now wasn't I?" The hatter pointed out coolly, inspecting his teacup (Alison hadn't the slightest idea what he might be looking for.). The Hare found his statement hilarious, and broke out in fresh waves of maniac laughter. "And I was right in the middle of making the most wonderful hat." The Hatter sighed.

From the other side of the clearing, the bushes rustled and the rabbit himself popped out, still running. He heaved himself into a seat, panting with exhaustion.

"Finally. The elusive white rabbit makes and appearance at his own tea party." The fish said, obviously miffed at his tardiness.

"You _are_ terribly late, you know." The hatter stated simply, as he started off into the distance.

The rabbit continued gasping for breath. "Yes, yes, I'm-I'm terribly sorry," He said with obvious irritation, "but I daresay she was much more difficult to find, and I would swear she's gotten faster. I had to take a more roundabout route here just to make sure she didn't catch me. Anyway, thank you all for coming." Had anyone been listening, they might have realized he was talking about Alice, but as no one was, they didn't. The rabbit looked around the table and noted the lack of attention. The fish was muttering something, presumably about his own importance, the Hare was holding an animated conversation with a teapot, (which apparently had quite a sense of humor, because the hare kept laughing quite loudly), the twins were squabbling about something again, the knight was distracted by some sort of butterfly, and the Hatter continued to stare dejectedly into space. The rabbit noted several missing faces. "Where are Cheshire and the Captain? And the Queens?" The rabbit asked Charles.

"Captain Gryffon," the fish stated very superiorly, "has more important places to be than attending a tea party with lunatics. He seems to hold some regard for it however, seeing as he sent me in his place to report back."

The rabbit chose to ignore the latter half of this statement. "And Cheshire?"

The fish looked more annoyed than anything. "We don't actually know if he's present. He has yet to show his cowardly, grinning little face, but it's entirely possible he's here invisible, laughing his head off at all of us."

"Laugh-laugh-laughing his head off!" The hare giggled with obvious glee.

"The Queens," The fish continued, "We have heard nothing from. However, the messenger we sent with the invitation… he never returned." He finished, serious for once. A grave silence ensued. Looking around, the rabbit noticed Hatter's dejected stare.

"Hello, Hatter, how have you been lately?" The rabbit enquired cautiously. He had heard that the hatter's mental health had been deteriorating in a rather alarming way as of late. The Hatter shrugged.

"The same, as always, why wouldn't I be any different? As being the same rather necessitates the constant-ness of the similarity and the same-ness of the not-differentness." Alison frowned, puzzled by this remark. The Hatter sipped his tea. "I have also made a great many hats lately, but I rather doubt your head's ability to fit them."

The rabbit scratched his head. "You mean the hats wouldn't fit me?"

"Don't be silly!" The Hatter retorted, offended. "My hats are capable of anything, it is the ability of your head that I doubt."

"Really now, Twitch, what is the point of all this?" Charles asked irritably. "It took the better part of an hour to drag Hatter out here, Jack is supposed to be in training with the other knights, and I" He said, sniffing in a superior way, "An supposed to be at several VERY IMPORTANT strategy meetings. I sincerely hope whatever this is about is QUITE ESSENTIAL." He finished, checking his pocketwatch yet again.

"The better part of an hour." The Hatter mused, examining his spoon. "What makes one part of an hour better than the other?"

Ignoring Hatter, the rabbit twitched his nose at the fish. "Essential? Only the single most important event to occur for the Alliance since it began!" He said, crossing his arms and twitching his nose in annoyance. "And don't call me Twitch!"

Charles rolled his eyes. "Don't be silly, Twitch, if there was something that important brewing, I would know about it. Capt. Gryffon trusts me with the most important assignments." He said superiorly. The Hatter snorted with laughter, which he tried to pass off as coughing. This fish had the largest ego Alison had ever seen.

The rabbit was seething. "Of course, your _majesty_, you are all- knowing and _far_ superior, how could I have forgotten?" He asked rhetorically, his words dripping with sarcasm. The fish seemed to miss the sarcasm, because he looked quite pleased and prim. The rabbit continued. "So I'm sure the captain has informed you, then, of Alice's return to Wonderland?"

At this statement, three things happened at once. The Hatter choked violently on his tea, coughing and wheezing, Charles's jaw dropped to levels one usually sees only on cartoon characters, and the knight, twins, and Hare all stared in surprise. When the Hatter had recovered form coughing, he laughed weakly.

"So sorry, my mind was a bit wander-y you know, and I was pondering ravens, and I thought you said something about Alice returning. So silly of me, really." He refilled his teacup.

The rabbit looked solemn. "I did say that. She'll be here any moment." The Hatter looked up in shock. The teacup shattered in his grip.

"_Alice_?"

**AN: We'll see more of the knight later, he's one of my favorite characters, as he is in Through the Looking Glass =) Also, I couldn't think of a good title for this chapter. Oh, and Charles, the fish, is an OC, in case you were wondering. I made him up; he just seemed to fit fairly well in the whole Wonderland thing. Poor Hatter and Hare… the've gone completely 'round the bend. Although it's a lot of fun to write about crazy people.**


	3. Chapter 3: Alice is Dead

**AN: Oh look, it's Chapter 3! As usual, reviews are love. 3. Oh, and I forget to mention, Charles is named after Charles Dodgson, the real name of Lewis Carrol.**

-3-

Alice is Dead

Somewhere in the library of Wonderland Castle, collecting dust even as the diligent librarian- turtles update them, near the back, (although the shelves are fond of rearranging themselves just to spite the turtles,) in the shelf of Quiet, there is a book: The History of Stunned Silences, somewhere between the histories of Awkward Moments and Lulls in Conversations. This is one of the more famous occurrences in the entire volume.

There was an absolute silence at the tea table, for the first time in… well, quite a while anyway, longer than any of them could remember. The rabbit was so dead serious, even the Hare didn't laugh.

It was at this tense moment that Alison, not having thought it out particularly well, stepped into view from behind the tree and took a few cautious steps towards the tables. The rabbit, being the only one not in shock, noticed her first.

"Alice. Welcome home." He said graciously.

This could not be happening. And why in hell did everyone think she was Alice? She approached the end table, quite unsure what to say. The March Hare recovered first.

"NO ROOM! NO ROOM!" He cackled, dissolving into yet another fit of laughter. Alison frowned and sat anyway.

"There's plenty of room." She murmured, more than a little freaked out. "And there seems to be a kind of misunderstanding." She said, gaining confidence as she spoke (and raising her voice to be heard over the mad laughter of the Hare). "I'm not Al-" She was interrupted by a sputtering noise.

"Geh? WH-WHAT? How-? Wha…?" The noise came form Charles, the fish. "What? ALICE?" That is entirely impossible! Inconceivable! Absolutely ridiculous! Absurd!" He huffed, in shock. "That he would neglect to tell ME, the most trusted of his advisors, this MOST IMPORTANT news, while he tells the RABBIT, of all people! The _rabbit_!" He slumped back, shaking his head in disbelief.

Alison spoke up again. "Actually, I'm not-"

"Alice?" The twins said simultaneously.

"Yes, exactly. I'm absolutely not Ali-"

" 'ow d' you do again, Alice," One of them, who had DEE embroidered on his collar, reached over and shook her hand fervently. "I knew Alice wouldn't abandon us, nohow." He was still shaking her hand when Dum shoved him.

"Contrariwise, it ain't so! I was saying she'd be back, you wasn't saying it nohow!" He said angrily. There was a pause, and he frowned. "But contrariwise, I s'pose if you did, y' would've, but not 'avin done so, you didn't." Dee rolled his eyes at his brother. Across the table, recognition finally dawned on the knight's confused face.

"_The_ Alice? Queen Alice? The one everyone's always talking about?" The knight's face lit up. "Hello again! I wouldn't s'pose you'd remember me," He said, "But I'm the knight from last time. Remember? I recited 'A-Sitting on a Gate.' Took me quite a while to memorize that." He added more to himself than to anyone else. She noticed he was the only other person at the table besides herself without a British accent.

"Er, yes, well," Alison said awkwardly, "You see I'm really not-

"NOT. ALICE!" The Hatter, the only one at this point who had not spoken to her, had stood up and was absolutely glaring at her. He looked around, completely dismayed. "Well? Are you all _blind_? This cannot possibly be Alice!"

"For goodness sakes, Hatter, calm down! She's just hit her head, doesn't remember who she is, and I'm sure you'll both realize it." The fish said impatiently.

CRASH. A teacup had smashed itself, or rather been smashed by the Hatter, on the table in front of the fish. Everyone looked towards the thrower, who looked rather pissed off.

"The fact of the matter is, gentlemen, that that there is not Alice, by any form of imagination! She's an impostor! And your oh-so-wise minds are being bamboozled and confuzzled by this child, this Not-Alice! But of course, don't listen to the madman, he can't possibly know anything!" He fumed. Alison used the sudden silence to say what she had been trying to explain.

"He's right, I'm not Alice, that's what I've been trying to say!" Everyone looked back at her. The rabbit looked positively flabbergasted, his nose twitching at an even faster rate. "I'm Alison." The rabbit bit his lip in concern. This was not going very well at all.

"But… you must be Alice! You look just like her! And I can't have brought the wrong person! Not to sound… conceited…" he shot a glance at Charles, who was too shocked to notice, "but I am _never_ wrong about these things. Never. It is a rather serious thing to bring a person to Wonderland, and you just have an..." He searched for the right term. "An Alice-ness. Yes. Wouldn't you agree? She must be Alice. No one else could be quite so Alice-ey." He said with finality. The Hatter fumed.

"Alice! Bah! If she was the real Alice, she wouldn't be dressed like a boy!" He said angrily. Alison jumped to her feet.

"I am _not_ dressed like a boy!" She said indignantly. "And I'm not Alice!" She added to the rest of them.

Charles rolled his eyes, and the rabbit patted the Hatter on the elbow.

"Deep breaths, Hatter, just try to calm down." The Hatter sent him a death glare, which he ignored. "I know how upset this whole Alice ordeal makes you, but it's all just a misunderstanding, really. This is, of course, Alice, and I'm sur-"

Alison turned to him. "Are you deaf or something? I _just_ _said_ I'm not Alice! This is ridiculous! You'd think I'd be the one to know who I am, for crying out loud!" The rabbit tried to cut in, but Alison continued. "You!" She pointed to the rabbit. "You don't exist! You're all wacked-out figments of my imagination in some weird dream I'm having after reading too much Lewis Carroll. You have no right to order me around if you're not real, so shut up!" She said harshly, fed up. Everyone looked quite stunned at this point, but she continued.

"Your stupid 'Alice' person is dead by now and-" The looks on their faces at this statement stopped her. The Hatter's face was frozen in shock, the tweedles looked to be on the verge of tears, the knight just looked confused, the fish's face seemed contorted, like it frozen mid-twitch, and the rabbit was simply agape with shock.

Several moments passed. "Um… sorry." She said awkwardly.

The rabbit finally spoke. "Can you be sure… she's really dead?"

Alison suddenly felt bad about breaking about the news. They seemed to have a pretty big thing for Alice. The knight had even mentioned something about her being a queen. This was _way_ weird, even for a dream

"In my world," she said softly, not wanting to make them any more frightened than they already were, "There are books about this place. I know most of your names, and they're really pretty famous." This statement had no effect in them, so she continued. "The story is the one of Alice, I guess the same one you're talking about, and her adventures here. Thing is, those were written, like, 200 years ago. If Alice ever was a real person, she'd be dead. I'm sorry." Alison finished lamely.

There was a pressing silence. One of the Tweedles sniffed sadly.

"But…but-bu-but… that can't be right!" The rabbit exclaimed in dismay. "It _can't_ be. It's… it's not what's supposed to happen, I can tell!" There was another moment of silence.

"Alice." Everyone turned towards the hatter, who had whispered her name. He appeared almost comatose.

"I'm sorry, hatter." The rabbit said quietly. The hatter's eyes snapped back into focus and glared at the rabbit. Without warning, the Hatter stood and turned away from the table. He paused a moment, then ran from the clearing, in the direction that had been previously determined to be the direction of his home. No one stopped him. The remaining party sat silently for what felt like the millionth time that day.

The hare giggled, then broke out in fresh rounds of crazed laughter that rang through the clearing, magnified by the surrounding silence.

"Shouldn't we go after him?" Alison said after a moment. Everyone looked at her. The white rabbit sighed.

"I suppose so. Wouldn't want him to do anything rash. You never know, with Hatter." He looked around at the glum faces of the party. "Anyone know where his house is on odd Thursdays?"

The fish puffed up. "I know where the Pool of Tears is, he claimed it to be on the other side. I can get us there in no time; I have superior finding skills, you know." He nodded self-importantly.

"You don't say." Alison muttered sarcastically. The fish developed another convenient hearing disability and failed to notice the remark. He stood up (or whatever passed for it, as he was balancing on his fin,) and sniffed the air, looking around. He licked his fin and stuck it in the air, as if determining wind direction. Alison rolled her eyes. They would never get anywhere with this moron leading. Not that she had any particular interest in finding the hatter, but one thing Alison hated was incompetence, and this fish was full of it. "Rabbit, where is the pool of tears?" She asked firmly. He jumped slightly, as if he'd forgotten she was there.

"In that direction, I believe." He pointed nervously towards the direction Hatter had left.

"That's what I thought." She stood and began to walk. She turned back to see everyone staring at her. "Well?" She put her hands on her hips. "Are you coming?"

The fish made an offended noise. "I beg your pardon! I believe I was to do the leading!" He said crossly.

"Do you know where we're going?" The knight asked incredulously, ignoring the fish. Alison shrugged.

"Not really, but I can get there a hell of a lot faster than that guy." Alison glanced at the fish, who was fuming.

"Now see here! I am advisor to Capt. Gryffon, distinguished member and leader of the Alliance, and you have no right-"

"Can it, sardine," she cut in, "this is _my_ dream, and I do not get talked down to by pompous, egocentric fish. Now please shut up." The fish turned somewhat red in the face, but did as she commanded. "Now." She said, mock pleasantly. "Anybody else wanna treat me like a kid?" There was no answer. She grinned. "I thought not. Let's go find a hatter."

**AN: Not thrilled with this chapter, but it'll do. The whole thing where hatter runs off, I had difficult time writing, and it's INFINITLEY cooler in my head.**


	4. Chapter 4: One Never Knows

**AN: God I hate this chapter. This first few paragraphs, tell me if it makes you cringe. Cause… I really don't know about it.**

-4-

One Never Knows

Why did these things happen? Hatter tore through the woods, tears blurring his vision. _Why_? He'd been doing so well, not even having the nightmares as often, not thinking of her as often. He hadn't made her a hat in weeks, which was just as well, seeing as the closet full of Alice-hats was likely to explode if he tried to add another.

He'd manage to finally squash whatever hope he had left of her returning, or so he thought, so he was rather confused as to why he was so upset. He'd been trying to forget Alice, as he'd known she had forgotten him.

And now a blasted Not-Alice had come, being rude, insulting Alice by looking like her and dressing like a boy, then telling him that Alice would most definitely never be coming back, and rubbing salt in the wound by being so very Alice-ey that it was impossible not to look at her without thinking of Alice. She even had the same blue eyes.

He quickened his pace as he pushed branches out of his face.

The odd group set off through the woods, abandoning the tea party. Alison in truth had no more idea where she was going than in "That Direction," but decided that since this was a dream, no matter where you went, something was bound to happen.

Alison led, trekking through the trees. The knight and rabbit, who walked along silently, followed her. The fish was close behind, muttering things about the "insolent little brat," and sulking. The twins, who were not the fastest walkers, were behind the fish, talking quietly to each other, interrupted occasionally by Dee hitting Dum and reprimanding him. After they had walked quite a ways, the knight spoke to Alison.

"Are you sure you're not Alice?" He asked questioningly. She turned to face him.

"I am entirely, one hundred and ten percent sure I am not Alice. I am Alison." She said, daring him to contradict her.

"Sorry." He said sheepishly. "It's just…you really do look like her. Except for the hair, of course. Yours is nearly black." He added. She nodded.

"And Alice was blonde, am I right?" He shrugged.

"The first time she visited. Her hair got a bit darker, though, by the time I had met her." He looked at Alison curiously. "But you are from the Other, correct?" Alison frowned suspiciously.

"The Other? If you mean the place Alice came from, then yeah." The knight grinned, thrilled.

"Really? What's it like? I've heard a lot about it but-" CLANG. In his excitement, he had tripped over a fallen log and again lay in a heap of armor. Alison stopped and attempted to help him up. "Thanks, I'm fine, really." He unsteadily clambered to his feet and straightened several pieces of armor that had been twisted. It looked terribly uncomfortable.

"Why do you wear that?" She asked as the group passed the log and continued. Even his walking looked awkward in the armor.

He looked at her as if it was an offensive question. "I'm a knight, we always wear out armor!" He told her.

"The knights I've read about only wear it during battles. It seems impractical to wear it all the time."

"We knights always have to prepare for the worst, now don't we?" He said with pride. Alison frowned. These were different than the knights she'd learned about in history.

"I suppose." She said. They walked in silence for some time, the knight humming to himself a tune Alison didn't recognize. They sky was growing gradually grayer, and the foliage was getting noticeably less green the farther they walked. Alison recalled one of the things she overheard at the tea party.

"Did you say Alice was a queen?" She asked suddenly, bringing the knight out of whatever thoughts he was having.

"Yes. Queen Alice is the rightful ruler of Wonderland. Without her, we can't stop the Queen of Hearts." Everything he said was matter-of-fact and calm. He seemed like a fairly laid-back kind of guy.

"Stop, like, kill?" Alison asked.

"Yes. That's what the Alliance plans to do." His face grew darker. "She's a terrible ruler. She abuses her power and enslaves or executes people just because she feels like it. Many of Wonderland's residents are in hiding, or have joined the Alliance. We need Alice because the Queen has magic protecting her; only Alice can harm her while the Queen it's in effect. While the Queen lives, her army will follow her to the death, and they're much too powerful for us to oppose." Alison frowned. Even for a dream, this didn't sound like a good thing.

"That sucks." Alison said quietly. "What about the Red and White Queens? Can't they stop her?" The knight shook his head.

"The Queens only each have a chess army. The Queen of Hearts has all the card suits in her command; she's much too powerful to oppose. However, they do send troops and supplies secretly to the Alliance and aid them whenever possible. That's where I come in." He said proudly. "I'm one of the many knights and other chess pieces who volunteered to fight the Queen. I've been training further at the Alliance base, but my commanders let me attend the tea party; I was invited as one of Alice's friends. Although I don't think anyone but the rabbit and a few of the leaders knew it was because of Alice returning; it's all a big secret."

Alison frowned, thinking. "If she's so terrible," She wondered aloud, "why do the cards follow her? Couldn't they just rebel?" The knight shook his head.

"The Heart suit is by far the largest and most powerful of all the suits, and they're loyal to her to a fault. They're her personal guards and law-enforcers. The more routine jobs are done by the other suits, spades, diamonds, and clubs, although they're about as fond of her as we are. The Hearts keep them in line, though." He shuddered. "I don't know what's true and what's not, but there are rumors about the kind of torture she inflicts on those in her court who oppose her, and they're not pretty."

"Yikes. She sounds like a certified wacko to me." The knight gave Alison a strange look but didn't say anything.

The sky by this time had become an unwelcoming, depressing gray, and the trees and plants had a rather dead appearance, as if the life was being sucked out of everything, literally. Charles heaved with exaggerated exhaustion.

"Could we… huff… rest for a moment? I'm… huff… I'm not used to… this much walking." The fish whined. Alison rolled her eyes.

"If you can't walk this far without getting winded, you're screwed if we ever have to run for our lives." She nonetheless stopped and gradually the others caught up with her and the knight.

She looked around at her companions. The rabbit slowly pulled out his pocket watch, a dull brass-looking thing with partly shattered glass and bent hands, and gazed at it. "We're late." He said quietly. She looked more closely at him than she had before. He had a deep blue button-up jacket that looked very old fashioned, with frilly trim and some sort of scarf-like thing. When he shifted slightly, she noticed the elbows were patched with an off-color material, and that the trim hung raggedly off the bottom of the coat in places. His miniature gold-rimmed spectacles were grimy and one lens was cracked. His whiskers had a defined droop to them, and his nose continued to twitch incessantly, while his fur was somewhat matted and patchy. He looked tired around his small pink eyes, though he generally had a rather frantic feel about him. He was altogether different than what Alison had seen in illustrations of the book, a well-trimmed rabbit with glossy white fur and a smart waistcoat.

On the opposite side of her, the knight was still humming to himself, looking at nothing in particular. He had shaggy blonde hair that stuck to his forehead and jutted out over his ears in a messy-but-cute way. He had a warm, sweet face and hazel eyes set in very tanned skin. As they sat, Alison noticed it was oddly still and quiet for a forest at midday, usually there were birds or animals scampering about, but aside from her companions, the forest seemed deserted. Somewhere close by, a twig snapped, making everyone jump.

"We should keep moving," The rabbit said quickly. "One never knows what lurks in these woods." He sounded rather nervous. As the group stood, with mutterings from the fish, the knight pointed ahead, to the right a bit.

"Through the trees there, you can just see the Pool of Tears." Alison squinted to see it, but sure enough, there was a grey-silvery still lake just visible.

"Creepy. The fog is a nice touch." She remarked of the chilling fog that clung to the surface.

"It means Hatter's house should be just up there." He nodded towards an enormous hill sloping up a ways in front of them.

"Fantastic. Hills. This ought to be fun." She muttered as they set off again.

**AN: Um… this is a highly revised chapter, if it feels choppy and sort of patchwork-y, that's because it is, literally. This chapter was originally called "The Pool of Tears" and involved the gang crossing the lake on a ferry. 0,o yeah. I didn't like it, so I stuck this in, although it isn't much better. And now, a word from your friendly neighborhood dictator. Plz to review?**


	5. Chapter 5: A Missing Invitation

**AN: We interrupt this broadcast to bring you the Queen being scary! Yay! And also, this goes for other chapters as well, but my knowledge of cards and their numbers and colors and order and suchnot is minimal at best, so correct me if I say something stupid. I don't think "suchnot" is even a word. It should be.**

-5-

A Lost Invitation

_-Meanwhile-_

"Your majesty, it was found with its messenger on the border of the Red and White Queens' domain two days ago." The speaker, a five of spades, trembled slightly. He'd never spoken to the Queen of Hearts directly, and she was every bit as terrifying as he'd heard. He gulped nervously. "The bearer bore the symbol of the Alliance, we shot an arrow through him as he was about to outrun us. This was the only message on his person." The Queen's red lips pursed with thought as she regarded the letter in question. An invitation, actually, and one that was most certainly not intended for the woman who was now reading it. Her glinting black eyes grew even harsher as she absorbed the message. Without her gaze leaving the page, she waved her hand dismissively.

"You may go." She said in a cold, casual way that only royalty can accurately pull off. The spade was more than happy to obey and scampered from the room, with a last nervous glance at the heart guards, stationed on either side of the door. When he was gone, her eyes flickered to the guards. "Off with his head." She ordered coolly, her voice echoing slightly off the cold stone walls. Her eyes glittered maliciously. "We can't have him telling the world, now can we?" She asked simply, her eyes returning to the message, eyebrows furrowing.

"Yes, my Queen." They replied in monotone unison, exiting. The doors clanged shut behind them.

Her pale, spindly fingers with blood-red nail polish traced a name on the parchment.

"Knave!" She barked, her voice full of command. A curtain off to the side was pushed back, and a small, hideously deformed man limped into the room. His back was hunched to a degree that it was difficult to determine if he was even human, his leg stuck out an unnatural angle, his face was lopsided, as if someone had slapped miss-matching features carelessly on his head, and a small patch of hair stuck up oddly.

"Yes, my most esteemed Queen?" His voice was raspy and high. He did the best he could to bow before her throne.

"I have received a most interesting invitation." She slowly and deliberately folded the letter and slipped it into a hidden pocket in her dress, dark red, with a high white collar, plunging V-neck with a gold and black pattern, and the card symbols patterning the crushed velvet skirt. She stood, drawing her regal and dangerous air about her, and descended the steps in front of her throne. She swept past the Knave, in thought. "Regardless of the fact that it was not intended for me, I would very much have liked to attend, perhaps with my executioner on hand." She turned on her heel and faced him. "Alice has returned to Wonderland. She is to be the Queen of the new order, the champion of the Alliance. Apparently, there was a little _tea_ _party_ to welcome her back." Her tone was mocking and sharp. She turned back, again thinking aloud. "They're not stupid. They know they cannot win whilst I live, and that Alice is the only one who can defeat me." She grasped a large ruby pendant at her throat. Another thought occurred to her, and she laughed, a cruel, sharp laugh. "They would have to be mad to try the alternative." She again turned to the Knave. "Seeing as we'd be quite late for the tea party, I do believe we should host our own little welcome for Alice," a wicked grin crept across her face. "After all, we wouldn't want her to miss her own execution." Once again serious, she handed the knave the letter. "When the Ace returns, inform him that his top priority is now finding Alice, and bringing her to me _alive_." The Knave carefully placed the letter in his pocket.

"And what of the Alliance, my Queen?" He asked in raspy whisper. The Queen of Hearts returned to her throne, hateful look setting in her eyes.

"Tell him to show no mercy." There was absolute loathing in her voice, as she stared off into the distance, thinking of the vile child who could destroy everything she had achieved in life. The knave, sensing her mood, decided he was dismissed, and began to limp back towards the curtain.

"And knave?" She called, an afterthought occurring. "Tell our… _friend_… to find out and report on what he can, and if the Ace doesn't reach her before she reaches the Alliance, to kill her." She spat the words out with relish, enjoying the idea of Alice's death. "If we destroy her, we _will_ crush the Alliance. I would rather not waste time and soldiers accomplishing it, if possible." The Knave nodded, again showing no emotion.

"Yes, your majesty."

**AN: This is my record for shortness, sorry =( but this chapter **_**was**_** supposed to be short. So yeah. I would also like to point out, and the knight mentioned this last chapter, that contrary to popular belief, the Red Queen and the Queen of Hearts are two entirely different characters in the original books. Lots of adaptations make them one person, (*coughTimBurtoncough*) making everyone confused. **

**See those little words down there? It says review. Click them, and review! You know you want to.**


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